Authorities: Arizona inmate killed cellmate to stay in prison

FLORENCE, Ariz. — Arizona authorities said the killing of a prison inmate
resulted from his cellmate’s desire to remain in custody, not from a fight as
initially believed.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office is recommending that prosecutors charge
43-year-old Roberto Venegas-Fernandez with first-degree murder in the Nov. 16
killing of 55-year-old Michael Patrick McNaughton

Both men were prisoners of the U.S. Marshals Service, which has said they were
from the San Diego area and housed at a Corrections Corporation of America prison in
Florence pending their transfer to the Bureau of Prisons.

Sheriff Paul Babeu said Venegas-Fernandez told investigators that he
choked and stomped McNaughton because he liked being in prison and was afraid of
being released since he had nowhere to go.